Black Radio 3 (stylized as BLACK RADIO III) is an album by American musician Robert Glasper. It was released on February 25, 2022, via Loma Vista Recordings, serving as the follow-ups to 2012's Black Radio and 2013's Black Radio 2. It was produced by Glasper along with co-producers Terrace Martin, Bryan-Michael Cox and Jahi Sundance, and mixed by Qmillion.
Background The album features a host of guest appearances from Amir Sulaiman, Ant Clemons, Big K.R.I.T., BJ the Chicago Kid, Common, D Smoke, Esperanza Spalding, Gregory Porter, H.E.R., India.Arie, Jennifer Hudson, Killer Mike, Lalah Hathaway, Ledisi, Meshell Ndegeocello, Musiq Soulchild, PJ Morton, Posdnuos, Q-Tip, Tiffany Gouché, Ty Dolla $ign and Yebba.
The album marked a commercial decline in the Black Radio Series, after it failed to chart on the Billboard 200. However, it received favorable reviews from music critics. At the 65th Grammy Awards, it was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and won Best R&B Album. The track "Better Than I Imagined" featuring H.E.R. and Me'Shell Ndegéocello also received the Grammy for Best R&B Performance that year.
Critical reception
Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.3 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.
Mancy Gant of the Rolling Stone wrote: "As an enjoyable fan-service sequel intended to offer music of comfort and solace, Black Radio III is fine. As an artist, Glasper is allowed to get into his beatmaker bag, relaunch the Black Radio brand, and leave the New Jazz Thing bleeding edge to others. But one can’t help but wish the stakes were a bit higher." Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of Paste stated: "Black Radio III makes a rather compelling case for jazz and hip-hop as mutually sustaining forms that not only beautify and propel one another forward, but also provide the inspiration for the rest of us to do the same amongst ourselves. The album grapples openly with America’s collective inability to come to terms with the paradox of being fascinated by a people and a culture that it’s put so much energy into denigrating."
Track listing
Notes Track 2 contains spoken words from Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah and voices of Josephine Hodge and Riley Glasper.
Charts + Chart performance for Black Radio III Chart (2022) Peakposition Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) 60 Japan (Oricon) 46
References
External links